'Binders full of women' comment by Mitt Romney is the 'Big Bird' of the second presidential debate

There were a few amusing exchanges in the earlier debates, but the tense nature of last night's seemed to preclude that possibility. There wasn't really a "Big Bird" or a "malarkey" moment, and even Joe Biden would have found little to chuckle about.

But Big Bird may have ceded way in our pop-culture consciousness to a brand new expression: "Binders full of women."

It came when Romney was answering a question about fair pay for women. While Obama mentioned the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which he signed into law, Romney spoke of his efforts to hire women into his cabinet when he was Massachusetts governor. He said he asked women's groups to help and, he said, "They brought us whole binders full of women."

Within moments, of course, social media pounced with multiple Twitter hashtags and a meme that featured a widely circulated image of women in a loose-leaf binder.

The line by Romney inspired its own Twitter account, @Romneys_Binder, which had more than 12,000 followers before the debate ended.

As for Obama, his best comedy moment may have come, fittingly for the night, in the form of a dig.

Romney
asked him if he had looked at his pension lately. Obama parried: "I
don't look at my pension. It's not as big as yours, so it doesn't take
as long."

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